News

The Steamship Authority has joined the opposition to some of the massive changes planned for the historic Dreamland Theater on South Water Street.

In a nine-page letter sent to the Planning Board Monday, the boat line argued that the addition of a 298-seat restaurant at the rear of the theater property between South Water and Easy streets would cause even more stressful traffic snarls than presently exist, particularly around arrival and departure times at the Nantucket terminal, and could prevent passengers from reaching their boat on time.

The SSA has asked the Planning Board to deny the project developer’s requests for waivers from open space, parking and off-street loading space requirements, as well as a request to waive the preparation of a traffic study.

“Easy Street is not just any street on Nantucket. It is the street by which all the island’s automobiles and freight trucks – as well as many of its residents and tourists – depart for the mainland. The Planning Board should not allow any further compromise of this sole vehicular access route for those traveling off-island – a route that is already overburdened due to the fact that is a narrow, one-lane, one-way street,” SSA general manager Wayne Lamson wrote.

“Further, the additional vehicular and pedestrian traffic congestion that will be created by Dreamland Theater’s proposed restaurant will seriously and adversely affect the safety and convenience of not only those persons and freight haulers attempting to travel on the Authority’s ferries, but all of the other people in the community and the neighborhood who are already experiencing the negative effects of excessive traffic in that particular area.”
A Boston consortium headed by developer Haim Zahavi and former state Sen. Marty Reilly bought the 175-year-old Dreamland earlier this month for $6 million from the four families that have owned the deteriorating building for decades. The Historic District Commission has already approved their plans to both preserve and expand the building by adding seats to the theater, converting the first floor of the structure into a multi-purpose performing arts venue with four high-end residential condominium units on the second and third floors. The developers also envision a theater that will stay open year-round, and feature theatrical productions, musicals, small concerts, comedy acts, and, of course, the latest box office movies.

Under the current plan, the rear of the building will be extended toward Nantucket Harbor to accommodate a new 2,600 square-foot restaurant with views of the Easy Street Basin. To make room for the restaurant, the small paid parking lot at the back of the property will be reduced to six reserved parking spaces in a crushed shell lot. The mezzanine level of the theater will include a cafe lounge, a bar lounge, a tiered balcony structure as well as a lap pool and two offices.

Paul Jensen, attorney for Dreamland Realty Trust, presented the group’s renovation plans for the theater to the Planning Board Monday, including the restaurant and an 1,800 square-foot kitchen in the basement.

Jensen asked the board for a parking waiver, as the plans only propose four parking spots for the proposed condominiums above the theater. Without a waiver, zoning requirements necessitate one parking spot for every four seats. With 408 seats – and possibly more under expansion – in the theater, and 298 seats proposed for the restaurant, the Dreamland would need to provide approximately 177 parking spots, an impossibility in downtown Nantucket.

The restaurant and the theater would serve foot traffic, and the Dreamland would not encourage driving downtown, Jensen countered.

Arthur Reade, an attorney for abutters Bob and Laurie Champion, the principals behind Brewster Equities, disagreed. The Champions own the building across Oak Street from the Dreamland. A 298-seat restaurant off Easy Street drew the Champions’ biggest concerns, namely on the volume of traffic they feel it would create.

“That’s the biggest restaurant on Nantucket,” Reade said. Every bit of traffic heading toward the Steamship Authority goes through that stretch of Easy Street, Reade said.
Debbie Culbertson, whose mother lives off Easy Street, also expressed concern about an increase in traffic that already forces her mother to plan what time of day she goes to the grocery store.

“This in an absurd place for a restaurant,” Culbertson said. She also worried that granting a commercial operation a height extension that had previously only been afforded to the Atheneum and the Whaling Museum would set a precedent, she said.

Flint Ranney, Nantucket’s representative on the SSA board of governors, said he would like to see the restaurant portion of the project denied.

“At boat times, which is about every hour and a half during the summer, Easy Street traffic frequently backs up to Main Street. In front of the Dreamland parking lot facing Easy Street, the road is one lane wide. If 16 parking spaces are taken away and replaced by a 300-seat restaurant, with trucks delivering to the restaurant and patrons arriving, stopping to let passengers out of their cars, and then going on to circle around downtown looking for parking, traffic congestion will become nearly unbearable. We're talking potential gridlock,” he said.

“Trucks having a requirement to get to the boats on time to maintain their own delivery schedules, and people with reservations trying to get to the boats, will inevitably be delayed and may miss their trips. This could be a nightmare.”

The remainder of the project is acceptable, he said, provided the parking is accounted for.
“I would like to see improvement of the theater and creation of living units above it, as long as parking is maintained. On a busy summer night, you could have 300 people at the movie and another 300 in the restaurant, plus maybe 50 employees, for 650 to 700 people in a facility with a proposed parking area for four cars. This does not make sense to the SSA or to me as a user of downtown streets.”

After the board continued the Dreamland’s public hearing to May 9, Zahavi approached a resident who was opposed to the large scale projects downtown during the hearing.
“People want to change things – don’t stop them,” Zahavi said.